


Sweetheart

by JustBarryAllen (Cammerel)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:18:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6803854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cammerel/pseuds/JustBarryAllen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which stereotypical gender roles are swapped and Barry is getting unwanted attention from an aggressive woman at the bar, so Iris intervenes to save the day. (AU where they don’t know one another)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InkSmudge](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkSmudge/gifts).



> This is fer you, honey!

“You don’t work out too much do you?”

“Uh, n-not really.”

“But you look like you have a little bit of muscle on you. I like that.”

“... yeah?”

“Mmm, _yeah_ ,” the girl says lowly, reaching out to run her hand up his biceps, “I like them _lean_.”

Barry clears his throat and tries to turn away from the woman, clearing his throat nervously, “Oh, uh, that’s-that’s n-nice.”

“Who’s this, sweetheart?”

Barry nearly falls out of his seat when he hears the voice and feels a hand on his other arm, he turns hurriedly and sees the woman standing there, looking at him expectantly, “Uh-uh-uhm…”

She smiles at him, narrowing her eyes, “I’m a little late showing up, and here you are with another woman hanging off your arm?”

“Uh-uh…” Barry flounders in confusion, his cheeks heating.

The woman leans over him, her hand pressing to his chest and her red nails glinting as they dig into the cotton, “He’s taken, back off,” she says and motions to a ring on her ring finger.

To Barry’s relief, the other girl actually **does** back off without question, sneering at them and moving on to someone else.

Barry’s shoulders slump and he drops his head to his hand when the woman that saved him pulls back, changing her ring over to her index finger, “I think I owe you a ‘thank you’,” he says and stares at her, “She’s been going on like that for nearly thirty minutes.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t say anything yourself,” the woman responds, ordering herself a drink and taking the seat beside him, “She’s a regular, and yeah, she does that a lot.”

“You’re a regular?”

The woman nods shortly, “Yup, it’s a nice break from my day job.”

“I get that,” Barry empathizes.

“But you’re not a regular,” she points out then, lifting a sharp brown, “Special occasion? Need to drown your sorrows? Forget about someone?”

“All three above?” Barry guesses and shrugs, “I’m Barry,” he offers his hand to her, “And thanks again.”

“Iris,” the woman says, taking his hand, “And no problem. I’ve heard the term ‘like a deer in headlights’ before, but I’ve never really seen it for myself.”

Barry chuckles as he tries to sip his beer, “So why do you come here? I know you said you come here a lot.”

“I dunno, you meet new people? Unwind?”

“You like the social aspect of it?”

“Something like that.”

“Not me,” Barry says honestly, waving his hand shaily around them, “N-no, I’m not a fan of most of this. I spend a lot of time around people.”

“So why come to a bar on a day like this?”

Barry tilts his head slightly, “Well, I guess it beats drinking alone.”

Iris smiles widely and clinks her glass to his, “I’ll drink to that. So, Barry,” she continues after she’s knocked back her shot glass, “The reason you’re here, it wouldn’t happen to be a girl, would it?”

“Uh, no,” Barry says quickly with a chuckle, “No, nope, definitely not.” He shakes his head a few times, then coughs into his hand, “Actually, it’s kind of a big deal, and a real downer, so I’d rather not get into any real details about it. Trust me, you don’t wanna know.”

“I don’t?”

“You don’t. And you probably wouldn’t even believe me if I told you.”

“I wouldn’t?” Iris looks amused, “You’re making a lot of assumptions about a woman you’ve only just met.”

Barry frowns when a crease forms between her brows, “I-I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make assumptions. I just-it’s-you seem like a really nice person, the last thing I wanna do is-...” he cuts off as Iris looks at him with more and more disbelief, “You ever just feel like no matter whether you lose or you win… you still lose either way?”

Iris looks down thoughtfully at the question and considers it silently for a moment, tapping her nail on her next shot glass before looking at him again, “I got a job a while back that I thought I had actually earned. Turns out they only hired me because they thought I had a connection with someone very important. It had nothing to do with how hard I was working. So yeah, I think I know what you mean.”

“A while ago, I took a really big risk that I thought was worth it in the beginning,” Barry finally decides to admit a little - maybe talking to someone about his problems, someone with an outside view, can help him, “Changing my mind about it ruined the lives of so many important people to me. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I finally managed to do something good after that, and it still… I hate feeling selfish, but I wanted something for **myself**. After feeling so down for so long… it’s like I lost everything all over again.”

“That being today?”

Barry nods, “I left a house full of people that were there to celebrate, just to come to this bar and be… lonely, but, you know, not-”

“Alone,” Iris finishes off his thought, “I’m sorry today’s been rough. Does being here help?”

“It wasn’t… helping, I mean,” Barry says and their eyes meet again.

Iris smiles slowly up at him and knocks back her last shot glass, “How about we ditch this place, then?” she turns bodily, stepping off her stool, “Grab some coffee at Jitters?”

Barry’s eyes widen slightly, but he stumbles to stand up as well, turning back to grab his coat from his seat, “Ye-yeah, definitely. I’m… I’m definitely up for that.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Have you ever had a Flash?”

Barry blinks at the question, his eyes nearly bugging out, “ A what?”

“A Flash,” Iris repeats and points up to the menu.

Barry turns his attention to it, narrowing his eyes to slits before smiling, “I have a-... I mean, I mean-” he starts scrambling, “There’s a drink called ‘the Flash’?”

Iris watches him and he starts to flounder before she giggles, “Do you know him?”

“Him?”

“The Flash.”

“I-I mean… who doesn’t?” Barry asks rhetorically, scratching the back of his neck, “Why name a drink after him, though?”

Iris orders two for them before finally leading him over to one of the tables, “Why not? He saved Central City.”

“Some might argue that.”

Iris’s gaze tightens on him and she actually goes a whole second degree by frowning, “What makes you say that?”

Barry blushes and shakes his head, “I-I just mean… I mean, we don’t even know what caused the singularity in the first place, right? It could’ve very well, just as easily, been his fault that the thing happened in the first place.”

Iris lifts her brows at the accusation, “Are you speaking from experience?”

Barry’s entire face turns beet red at the question and he starts wildly shaking his hands, trying to damage control, “No, no, nothing like that at all, this is all purely based on speculation, of course.”

“Of course,” she says, and Barry knows she doesn’t believe him for a second, “Well, you might not want to speak too loudly about not believing in him, some people around here might take offense. Some people think he’s the greatest thing that’s happened to this city since the Particle Accelerator explosion.”

Barry stops moving so wildly and stares at her in surprise, “You… you think so?”

Iris nods confidently, “I’ve been writing about him ever since he was the ‘red streak’, I’m the one that named him ‘The Flash’. In my eyes, he’s a hero.”

Barry doesn’t believe her for a second. He’d been so down in depression since the singularity nearly wiped out Central City and ended up killing one of the only other meta human comrades he had, but hearing how she talks about him causes a warmth to spread through him, “You… still think he’s a hero? Even after all of those people died?”

“He’s saved us so many times,” Iris responds, her tone softening, “And maybe he hasn’t been around much in the last few months or so, but he **has** been around, I know that for a fact. He rebuilt **this** building.”

“You seem pretty passionate about the guy, you ever met him?”

Iris shakes her head, smiling when the drinks are set down for them and she sits back in her seat, “I’ve seen the red streak, and I’ve seen his face once. But I wouldn’t say I’ve met him, not personally.”

“You said you write about him?” Barry presses curiously.

“Not as much these days, since I started working for CCPN, but I still post to my blog every once in a while, when I have the time.”

“You have a blog about the Flash?”

Iris straightens up a little and Barry can tell that she’s taken offense, “I do. You’re looking at the official Flash fangirl, in the flesh. So yeah, if you don’t like him, **I** might take some offense.”

Barry blushes and clears his throat, looking away and shaking his head, “I guess you could say I have mixed feelings about him.”

“Why?” Iris asks quickly, then elaborates, “I’m open to hearing your opinion, that wasn’t meant as an attack. I genuinely wanna know why anyone other than meta humans that want to cause harm would have mixed feelings about the Flash.”

“I guess I just don’t see him as a hero like everyone else does,” Barry tries to explain, “He’s done some good, but I feel like he’s also made some mistakes along the way. And, with his powers, his mistakes are often more taxing than any normal human being. But!” he holds a hand up, staring at Iris, “I’m… I’m open to hearing what you have to say about the guy, you… you definitely have an opinion about him.”

Iris smiles at him and shrugs her shoulders as if to convey ‘obviously’, “Nice to know you’re not a complete bigot.”

“Just don’t rip my head off if you don’t completely win me over.”

“No promises.”


End file.
